At the 2011 census the population was 21,603. The smaller town of Chipping Sodbury (population 5,045) is contiguous with Yate to the east. In addition, a large southern section of the built-up area spills over into the parish of Dodington (population 8,206), and so the total population of Yate's urban area is now approaching 35,000.

The first mention of Yate is the existence of a religious house in about AD 770; Yate is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is derived from the Old English word giete or gete, meaning ‘a gateway into a forest area’.[2]

During the Anglo-Saxon period and well into medieval times, most of this part of south Gloucestershire was covered with forest. Through the centuries the land was cleared for farming.

The town's parish church, St Mary's,[3]
dates from Norman times. It was altered during the 15th century and was extensively restored in 1970. St Mary's Primary School,[4] situated outside the churchyard walls, was built on the site of a former poorhouse.

It was the opening of the railway station in 1844, as part of Bristol and Gloucester Railway, that established Yate, with Station Road becoming the central thoroughfare. The cattle and produce markets were held around this road, and businesses were established there. Yate railway station was closed by the Beeching cuts in January 1965, but was reopened in May 1989; the Brunel-built engine shed is preserved nearby.

In the 1960s Yate was designated as a development area and the building boom began. The creation of a new town included a large retail shopping area, sports and leisure development together with public buildings.

When a secondary school was built in the late 1970s, it was supposed to be called Brinsham Green School, after Brinsham Lane at nearby Yate Rocks. Owing to a spelling error, however, it was in fact called Brimsham Green School.

The town further expanded in the 1990s and 2000s with the construction of housing at North Yate. This housing estate continued to use the corrupted name of Brimsham. To locals the area is known as Brimsham Park.

At the end of the Second World War, the site was taken over by the Royal Navy and became known as the Sea Transport Stores Depot. It was occupied by the Highways Agency until the sheds were demolished for development. Oxford Archaeology[5] has been commissioned to undertake an investigation as to the military significance of this site. The opinion of Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society has also been sought.[6]

Major growth in Yate started in the early 1920s with the construction of the Moorlands Road estates behind Station Road, close to the Parnall aeroplane factory. In the 1950s the Ridge housing estate was developed. The area between these estates was still being mined for celestine and therefore could not be built on until the mineral had been extracted.

In the 1960s the area around Stanshawes was exhausted of celestine and the housing boom started with the major construction taking place in the south. Much of this development was planned using the Radburn model, a design that created a vehicle-free environment by the use of green spaces and linking paths at the front of the houses. This model was used until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the planners reverted to traditional street design methods for the development of the remainder of North Yate, Brinsham Park and the Newmans factory site.

Before the Second World War, Yate had an aircraft manufacturing industry (Parnall) with a grass aerodrome.[7] During the Second World War, Parnall specialised in making gun turrets. A number of people were killed in raids by the Luftwaffe on the factory in February and March 1941.[8]

Following the war, the Parnall factory turned to the manufacture of domestic goods and was famous for its washing machines. In 1958 Parnall merged with Radiation Ltd to become known as Jackson, producing the Jackson range of cookers. Through mergers and acquisitions, Jacksons is now part of Indesit and the Jackson name is no longer used.

Newman's of Bristol had a large factory on Station Road, from 1932 until the 1980s, in its heyday in the 1960s, employing over 1,500 people.

Yate has had three natural products associated with it: limestone to the east, celestine or spar near the centre of the town and coal to the west.

The need for limestone increased with the growth of roads, while the demand for coal grew with the diminishing supply of timber. Celestine, the major strontium mineral, was first dug in the late 1880s and was initially used for the refining of sugar beet. At one time Yate’s celestine accounted for 95 per cent of the world's production.[9] It colours flames red, and so was important for pyrotechnics such as fireworks, military and signal flares and tracer bullets. The last commercial excavation of celestine from the Yate area was for use during the Vietnam War. The mining company, Bristol Mineral and Land Co, closed in 1994.

Construction of a pedestrianised shopping centre of around a hundred shops began in the early-to-mid-1960s.[10] The shopping centre was opened by Patricia Phoenix, (who played Elsie Tanner in ITV's Coronation Street), Mary Rand (athlete) and Ted Ray (comedian). As with the most British net towns, modern art was included in the design: in the case of Yate, this was in the form of the Four Seasons sculpture, and a graceful and dramatic spire-shaped sculpture, which could be seen for miles, mounted high above the centre on the roof of one of the shops. This sculpture existed until the early 1990s when it was removed during the revamping of the centre, which included the erection of glass roofs over the walkways. An extension to East Walk was constructed at the start of the 1980s, and this included the construction of a new Tesco store, with the old store in South Walk turned into a Tesco Home and Wear store. An extension to West Walk was constructed in the early 1990s.

Yate shopping centre housed a single screen cinema until the early 1980s. It was closed and replaced with Spirals nightclub. The club closed in the 2000s and was replaced with Rileys pool club and then by Waves, another club. Waves closed in 2012. A youth centre called Armadillo opened in 2011.

On 19 November 2009, a large crowd packed into the shopping centre to see Peter Andre switch on the town's Christmas lights and sing his single "Unconditional".

On 15 November 2012, Steps plus a finalist (still to be announced) from the 2012 series of the X Factor were due to switch on the town centre's Christmas lights.

In December 2006, the owners of the shopping centre (Dominion Corporate Trustees) announced plans to enlarge and modernise it. In Phase 1 one of the main changes has been the replacement of the existing small Tesco with a large Tesco Extra. To replace lost shopping centre parking following the enlargement, the store is on stilts, with parking beneath. It opened on 24 October 2011.

Located near the shopping centre are Lidl, Morrisons and B&Q. There are two Tesco Express stores in Yate: one on Station Road and one in Brimsham Park. The B&Q was built in the mid-to-late 1980s, along with two small housing estates, on the site of the Newman's electric motor factory which had been demolished in the mid-1980s. There is also a Screwfix branch located on one of the trading estates.

In 2008, construction of a new health centre began on the site of the old one, costing around £12 million. The new West Gate Health Centre (formerly the West Walk Health Centre) was officially opened on 8 March 2010.

In August 2009, plans were agreed for Tesco to pull down their store and replace it with a more modern store, known as a Tesco Extra. The plans include four more shop units, moving the bus station and a revamped entrance to East Walk. The revamp of the town's bus station was officially opened in January 2010. A temporary Tesco store was opened on 28 February 2011 while the new Tesco Extra was under construction. The old Tesco closed its doors on 27 February 2011 and the Tesco Extra store opened on 24 October 2011.

It was revealed in September 2011 that Marks and Spencer have asked for planning permission for a new store in two of the four new units, on which building work will commence in October 2012. The other two units will be occupied by Costa Coffee and Sports Direct. This second phase of the centre's expansion plans is being built next to Superdrug, in East Walk (opposite the Tesco Extra store). The public toilets next to the Superdrug store will be demolished and re-built on West Walk.

J. D. Wetherspoons public house and restaurant opened in the summer of 2012, on the corner of South Walk/South Parade, occupying several units, including the former Motorworld store.

In September 2014, it was finally announced that Yate would get a new cinema. The cinema would be operated by Cineworld and would be part of a further expansion to the Yate Shopping Centre, which was also to include seven restaurants. The extension was built on and behind the current overflow carpark on Link Road, on the other side from the Tesco Extra store, and was called 'Yate Riverside'. Construction began in early 2015 and the cinema opened in spring 2016.

The town has several parks and areas of open space. The largest of these is Kingsgate Park, which has an adventure playground for children.

The town is served by a community radio station, GLOSS FM which broadcasts 365 days a year on its webcasts and twice a year on 87.7 MHz FM.

A Cineworld cinema opened in the new riverside shopping centre in April 2016.

The town benefits from a four appliance firestation, with a retained Crew 24 hours and the further tenders manned on a voluntary basis.
Next to the firestation is a 6 bay ambulance station with a further 3 ambulances and 2 response cars stabled outside.

Yate and Chipping Sodbury have been earmarked for 5,000 new homes to be built by 2026. While the location of the housing has yet to be decided, the expected areas are to the north of Yate, and towards Chipping Sodbury.

Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club[14] is Yate's nearest cricket club, providing cricket for men, women, boys and girls. They play their home matches on their two grounds at the Ridings playing fields in Chipping Sodbury.

Yate is also home to Yate United Youth F.C., the largest local youth only football club, established in 1971. They play their home matches at Yate Outdoor Sports Complex, Sunnyside Playing Fields and Kelston Close playing fields.[17]

The largest local club is St. Nicholas F.C. Otherwise known as St. Nick's, this club has a total of 21 teams, including two ladies and one men's team. They play at The Ridings, Wickwar Road, Chipping Sodbury. The women's first team, St Nicholas L.F.C., play in South West Division One of the FA Women's Premier League, and play their home games at Yate Town's ground on Lodge Road.

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, was born in 1965 at the Chipping Sodbury Maternity Hospital (later the Chipping Sodbury Memorial Day Centre), on Station Road, Yate. Until the age of four, she lived with her parents in Sundridge Park, Yate.[22][23][24]

Yate was awarded the tongue-in-cheek honour of being the 45th worst place to live in the UK, according to the Idler Book of Crap Towns,[25] while Half Man Half Biscuit's song "The Referee's Alphabet" on their Cammell Laird Social Club album of 2002 informs the listener that "Y is for Yate, the kind of town that referees come from".